A SAUDI sheikh has issued a fatwa against anyone wanting to travel to Mars.

A member Saudi Arabia’s board of religious scholars Sheikh Ali al Hemki has criticized the Mars One project which is attempting to organize a commercial mission to the red planet and has drawn expressions of interest from more than 200 thousand people worldwide.

The Ah Hayat newspaper quotes him as saying the mission does not conform to “responsible Muslim” practices.

The Mars One project aims to create the first human settlement on the Solar System’s second-smallest planet.

While 477 Saudi citizens have applied for the mission, only six have so far been accepted….

Great. So we’re going to have No Go Zones on Mars. Red rock stonings. Before long, the story will be that Mars belongs to Muslims because Mohammed visited it in a “nighttime journey” on a flying horse.